About

The Orchestra, founded in 1908, is a non-profit organization and enjoys a glorious tradition and outstanding reputation with music lovers not only in Berlin. The orchestra’s appearances have included amongst others performing in the Berliner Philharmonie, concert tours to Japan, Italy, Poland and France, and numerous concerts with renowned soloists. The AOB presents three concerts each season to an audience of 3,000 persons of all ages.
The AOB is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburgische-Liebhaberorchester e.V. (www.llbv-ev.de and the Bund Deutscher Liebhaberorchster e.V. (www.bdlo.de).

Join us

Experienced violins and violas welcome. Players of woodwind and brass instruments are welcome to enquire about membership at any time, but for these instruments vacancies are more limited.
There are no formal auditions, and potential new members attend a few rehearsals during which their suitability rapidly becomes apparent.
Members of the AOB speak foreign languages e.g.: English, French, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Portugese, Spanish etc.

Tours abroad and concert invitations

The tours abroad, the cooperations with other orchestras and choirs, as well as the concerts of invited ensembles belong to the tradition of the orchestra.

In the long chain of big events of the orchestra the concert trip to Tokyo at Easter 1998 takes pride of place. Such a concert trip with two concerts and unforgettable impressions earns a special mention. The warm welcome in Japan, the local acquaintance of our European culture, making music together and celebrating together will have a lasting effect.

The return visit of the Machida Philharmonic Orchestra and the Komae choir with the corporate concert in March 2000 in the Philharmonie Berlin illustrates another height.

Extremely successfully ran our concert trip to Italy in April 2002. Two concerts were enthusiastically received by the audience and the press. After the impressive success of the first Italy trip it gravitated us in 2005 again toward this nice country and in 2015 again. In 2009 there was also a concert trip. This time we were in France where the AOB gave two concerts in the Provence.

In 2005 the AOB and the Hanns Eisler choir Berlin were welcomed with much enthusiasm in the Polish Szeczin with their “American programme”. The program included extracts from Gershwins “Porgy and Bess” as well as works of Delius and Copland. The hall of the Filharmonia was hardly capable of the stampede od visitors. Long-lasting standing ovations were affectionate thanks to the soloists, conductor, choir and orchestra.

Promotion of talents

Many artists, nowadays famous musicians, gave concerts during their careers with the Academic Orchestra of Berlin. So, in 2008 the orchestra celebrated in the Philharmonic its hundred years of existence, with a festive concert on the poster of which notably appeared Annette Dasch, who interpreted the Rückert-Lieder of Gustav Mahler. AOB also takes its responsibility today in relation to the young musicians of tomorrow and hires regularly young gifted soloists, to give them the possibility of showing their capacities.

Since 2010 the AOB supports a kids-group of string players of the primary school Dunant in Berlin-Steglitz with donations and other things. This project is until today unique for an amateur orchestra to motivate young people to learn an instrument.

Important personalities

The musical profile of the orchestra was principally marked by the professor Hans Hilsdorf, who conducted the orchestra 37 years since 1962 and who also wrote during this period his own compositions and orchestrations for “his” orchestra. Andreas Schüller succeeded him in 1999 and developed also the level of the quality of the AOB. Peter Aderhold is the artistic director of the orchestra since 2003. He worked as musical director on more than 40 operas in different establishments. He drew attention as composer notably with his opera ” Martin Luther “, which was written for the new opera of Erfurt. Helmut Mebert, who played many years before within the Philharmonic Orchestra of Berlin, joined AOB as solo first violin.

Concert archive

The repertoire of the AOB includes classical and contemporary compositions. The high quality of the performances is appreciated by the public. The uninterrupted development of the orchestra allows to prepare always new programmes.